A handful of Shan State Army (SSA) ‘North’ fighters guarding inmates, mostly drug addicts, outside a village between Mongyai and Hsipaw townships, Shan State North, was attacked by an unidentified Burmese Army patrol this morning, according to a rebel source.

The Burmese Army soldiers took up positions on two hills overlooking the ‘treatment center’, where inmates were required to work in the surrounding pineapple orchard, at 06:00. The eight-men at once released their charge, about 20 of them, and retreated. “Nobody was hurt,” he said. “We don’t know how the attackers fared.”

The latest clash, the third in 15 days, has been confirmed by the anti-Naypyitaw SSA South leader, Lt-Gen Yawdserk.

The site is located outside Kung Niu, a village half way between Hsengkeow and Mongyai, a distance of 27 miles from each other.

According to a Wa source on the border, the Burmese commander in Mongton, opposite Chiangmai, recently told them, the time for negotiations was over as of 1 September. “You have only three choices: move back to the Sino-Burma border where you came from, surrender or fight,” the unidentified commander was quoted as saying.

A Wa fighter travelling alone in a passenger car was taken into custody in Mongton township last week. “He was said to have been beaten up and killed,” he said.